Have you dropped your M? Tell your story..

[barrybed]

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A fellow member recently wrote about damage to his camera when it fell. I have my own horror stories ( I will tell them later if the thread gets going), but I would like to hear yours; how did it fall, what did it strike, damage and how was it repaired? If this has been asked before, please forgive me..Robbie

 

 

http://robbiebedell.photoshelter.com

[k_g_wolf ✝]

Every serious photographer can tell you stories about

fallen cameras. A few of my cameras did fall, just the M9

was lucky so far, not old enough.

 

Results: from bent lensshades (most of the time) to a cracked UV-filter and a

partially damaged topplate.

 

Costs: from zero to +EUR 1,000 in case of the M6-topplate. The camera had hit a granite

staircase ... Take your chance. The good thing: everything is repairable, well, almost ...

 

best

GEORG

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[Lord Fluff]

I've dropped a Canon 5D once (no damage, flash foot broke off, fixed for free by Canon), my 1 series bodies many times (no damage that made any difference), but thankfully never my M6, 8, or 9 - and based on what I've heard regards costs, I'm going to try my utmost to keep it that way.......

[bpalme]

I dropped a one week old 50 Summilux last week. I dropped it from sitting height onto wood floors. Caps were on and I couldn't find any damage...not even the slightest scratch. I about had a heart attack though.

A few years ago I dropped a cassegrain telescope. Couldn't believe it survived with just a little dent.

[Double Negative]

In over 30 years I've only ever dropped a piece of camera gear once - a Canon D30 and EF 35mm f/2 lens. Minor scuffs to the camera, lens blew out the AF/MF switch - the latter of which I had repaired.

 

Only lost two items. One was a rubber eyepiece surround from a cheap eBay eyecup, the second a slip-on lens cap from the Voigtländer 35mm f/1.2 Nokton. I only replaced the latter.

 

<knocks on wood!>

[pico]

I've written of this before - I had a severe bicycle wreck while carrying a brand new M9 across my chest/shoulder. I rolled with the bike three times, and was unconscious until I awoke in the ER, semi-conscious. There was my housemate in the room, and the smashed camera beside her. The top plate, back, lcd, and lens were mangled.

 

I asked her to hand it to me. I absently-minded focused upon her, pressed the release. No image on the screen. Handed it back and went under again.

 

Two days later at home I put the SD card in my computer and was amazed to find a perfectly exposed and well focused picture of my mate in the emergency room. The M9 still worked! However, I would not be able to use it properly, nor trust it.

 

It cost a lot of money to rebuild the body, but Leica did it and very quickly. I feel that I now have a better-than-new M9.

 

(Other good news - Trek replaced my smashed helmet for free, and rebuilt my bike for parts-only but did not replace the CF. That's my problem.)

 

Other? Any pro news photographer will likely mention that their cameras get pretty dinged up, hitting each other (in the days before Zooms when we carried up to three cameras.) My M4s were badly abused and never failed.

.

[bpalme]

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I remember that post.. Glad you're ok.

[hoppyman]

I bent down to put my bag on the ground while walking around Alcatraz and my neckstrap slipped over my head. M8 fell half a metre onto concrete landing on the lens hood of my Summicron 28. My son who was with me still recalls the near simultaneous crunch and wail of despair.

Camera unmarked and undamaged ditto lens and hood, my heart not so much.

I dropped ME in a snow drift near Las Vegas with camera on strap around my neck. It rotated smartly and stopped travelling with the shutter release about 2mm inside my left temple just prior our synchronised landing in the snow. Got a well exposed action shot of my shoulder. Thank heavens for the Luigi cushioning and a soft release button on that occasion. Camera 1 head 0.

 

I bounced my brand new Elmar 24 sans rear cap from waist height off the medieval pavers in a street in Berlin when I fumbled a lens change. I had the presnce of mind to recall the appropriate curse word in German. It starts the same as the English version.

Tiny mark in black paint adjacent the rear element otherwise no ill effects whatsoever to lens. Since the fumble also involved near dropping my fifty the wear and tear on my lifespan was also significant.

Edited April 2, 2012 by hoppyman

[SteveYork]

I dropped an M4 into the surf at the beach once. Big repair bill.

[Messsucherkamera]

Here's mine: http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/customer-forum/230541-postmortem-lessons-broken-m4-p.html

 

I sent her off to Sherry Krauter for repair today. Will post the results when she is repaired and back home again.

[Aviator]

Breakfast with coffee and bagels at the local bakery 3,45 €

 

New shutter after dropping the camera 700,- €

and 4 weeks without my beloved M8.

 

The canon 50 1,2 LTM survived.

 

That was a luxury breakfast!

Edited April 5, 2012 by Aviator

[TomB_tx]

I've never dropped a camera (yet). I'm sure I've posted the story before, but in the late 1960s the Leitz N.Y. USA Leica magazine carried a story with photo of a skydiver who dropped his M3 when his parachute opened at 4,000 ft. and the strap broke. He found the camera in a grassy field, cleaned off the mud, and took pictures. Later the glass pressure plate was found to be cracked, so it was replaced.

[rob139]

I once dropped my almost new (few rolls of film) M6. While falling I tried to break its fall by putting my foot in between the floor and the camera. By doing so I actually kicked it away. It really rolled on the floor like a soccer player after a tackle. The lens was fine, the only thing really dented was the hotshoe with the serial number. I never replaced it and sold it as it was.

 

I can still feel the awful sensation when I realized it was falling...

 

Rob

[Richardgb]

A few of my cameras did fall, just the M9 was lucky so far, not old enough.

• C330f: slipped off shoulder onto stone steps - bent focusing knob and spindle. Fortunately lens board / focusing, film winding and shutter-cocking unaffected. repaired easily.
  
• Contax 159 with 200mm lens: lens hood took the brunt - straightened by local repairer as long out of production and no replacement parts. Repairer said he had a drawer full of lenses with the same problem.
  
• Contax S2 with 28mm lens: strap slipped off shoulder. Scuffing to lens, but quality seemingly unaffected.
  

An early camera bag strap had the unwelcome phenomenon of unclipping and detaching itself...

 

Not so much of a camera-dropping problem, but my credibility which took a dive when I didn't notice the dark-slide holder (on a 4x5) had become unclipped, allowing it to move away from the bellows slighty and thereby letting light onto the film. As always, it was an 'unrepeatable' shot...

 

Every serious photographer can tell you stories about

fallen cameras.

 

Does all this make me a serious photographer?

[marknorton]

A Crumpler bag slipped off my shoulder while getting into a taxi in London and fell 18" to the ground. Inside, an M8 and a first version Tri-Elmar (MATE). Camera was fine, though it was going back to Solms for upgrade he following week, so I didn't check it extensively. The Tri-Elmar was completely seized neither e focussing nor e focal length rings could be turned and the aperture ring was stiff. €350 to have the mount rebuilt.

[jaques]

my camera bag got caught on my motorcycle rack- the bag flipped upside down and the M9 with (heavy) 35 1.2 CV lens flew towards the concrete. By a miracle the end of the camera strap caught on the bikes side mirror stalk- and the camera was caught just before it hit the ground: just like a bungee jumper. The ground was rough concrete- I reckon the camera and lens would have been severely damaged... I sewed some buckles onto my camera bag... don't trust velcro is the moral of the story.

[RobertJRB]

Never dropped an M body, only slr's.

 

When I bought my M8. I was at the sellers office trying it. When I decided to take it the seller wanted to grab the camera to put it in the box but instead of grabbing he knocked if of the desk. Lucky for him he was able to catch the strap before it hit the ground.

 

Would have been an awkward situation, I already had the money in my hand

Edited April 8, 2012 by RobertJRB
Typo

[leicanut2]

I never dropped a camera or lens until after I sawed my thumb the long way in a table saw all the way into the bone about inch and a half long. Did not loose the thumb but it is about 3/8 inch shorted because of the massive loose of tissue near the tip. Drove my self to the hospital got sewed up 6 hour later, lol

Any way now theres no feeling in my thumb so can't tell how hard I am holding a lens so dropped a leica 65mm - trashed it and a 135mm also was trashed also and a c 90 that survived now I sit down and change lenses over something soft like carpet or grass not over cement just don't trust my self anymore.

 

 

 

Jan

[Double Negative]

^ Ouch, on so many levels.

 

I have nightmares like that.

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[Paulus]

Dropped my M6 titan nothing happened because it was in a leather pouch. ( It rolled 4 times over the stones of the sidewalk ) .

 

 

 

Dropped my M6 traveller inside the house on a wooden floor. Nothing happened.

 

A glass herb- pot fell on my M8. € over € 800,- damage ( new cap, new sensor, ).

 

Dropped my Nikon F3 ( has a lot of dents ) and F4 ( broke the ( plastic !!!) viewfinder and D3 several times. Only thing ever happened that my 85 mm filter threat broke of the lenshood.

 

Dropped my M6 ttl riding a bike. When I had to brake very hard, it flew out of my bicycle bag and shove about 5 meters over the road. Luckily it was packed in the pellicase. Nothing happened.